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Does anyone have any further reviews on these lately? Our club may be faced with a situation that we may need to switch to something like this instead of popper guns. I would like to hear further reviews or of any improvements made if any. Thanks

The new simulators have been used successfully for licensed field trials and shown at Super Retriever Series Events. At a recent field trial when the weather was really bad and they had consistent problems with poppers and shotguns, the simulators replaced shotguns with no problems. Normally participants and trainers cannot tell the difference. In most cases the sound from the simulator carries farther and with more authority than a standard shotgun popper. Trainers (both pro and amateur) using the simulators today are saving hundreds of dollars over buying popper shells and there is no argument that a shotgun sound is superior to primers for any training situation.

Like any piece of equipment some user training and experience helps. Usually with about 2 minutes of proper training any novice user can be taught to effectively activate the simulators. They are much safer than standard popper loads and don't require any cleaning.

Best advice is try one for yourself and form your own opinion. Odds are you won't be dissappointed.

They are a bit of a PITA to juggle and there is a learning curve to timing the shot so that the 5-6 second delay between beginning the charge and actually firing does not become a problem. That aside, the cost per shot is low, the sound is a little less directional, but just as loud or louder than a popper. Much easier on the ears than a 22 starter pistol; not as nice as a popper gun but, given the quality of a lot of the guns and the poppers, more reliable.

The new simulators have been used successfully for licensed field trials and shown at Super Retriever Series Events. At a recent field trial when the weather was really bad and they had consistent problems with poppers and shotguns, the simulators replaced shotguns with no problems. Normally participants and trainers cannot tell the difference. In most cases the sound from the simulator carries farther and with more authority than a standard shotgun popper. Trainers (both pro and amateur) using the simulators today are saving hundreds of dollars over buying popper shells and there is no argument that a shotgun sound is superior to primers for any training situation.

Like any piece of equipment some user training and experience helps. Usually with about 2 minutes of proper training any novice user can be taught to effectively activate the simulators. They are much safer than standard popper loads and don't require any cleaning.

Best advice is try one for yourself and form your own opinion. Odds are you won't be dissappointed.

Retrieverfever, are you employed by this company? It seems most of your posts on RTF are related to Thunder equipment. If so, please PM me as i would like to talk to you further. Per your last sentence about trying one and forming my own opinion, I would absolutely love to, but not at a cost of 8-10 of these for our club... Any reviews or feedback I can get from people actually using them is very helpful to our decision making and risk management.

I don't own one, but people in our training group have them so I've used them.

The previous comments were old so I thought I would add mine.

The simulator works great. Nice loud "boom." In my opinion the problems with the strap, bent mapp canisters, and ease of use all get better if you put the strap over your shoulder with the canister facing to the front.

I've never seen their instructions and maybe that's what they say, but it just works better for me that way.

John Lash

"If you run Field Trials, you learn to swallow your disappointment quickly."

"Field trials are not a game for good dogs. They're for great dogs with great training." E. Graham

I've used these a ton. (two seasons of SRS events) We did the first event with these with a crew of 5 kids that were 15 and 16. The learning curve for the kids was about 5 minutes and a dollars worth of gas. Boy they had fun, and if these kids couldn't blow them up they won't explode. Kids treated them as potato guns shooting all kind of stuff (which I don't recommend but a golf ball can be shot about 150 yds if you can balance it in the tube)
The smaller mapp gas cans are easier to handle and I actually tested with all kinds of gas and even the cheap propane for heaters work. The only issue I had was one of the four we had had an igniter that wasn't consistent so whoever had this one had to be prepared to push the button again quickly.